(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a coupling apparatus that is designed to provide a vertical pivoting coupling between an upstream multichannel air conveyor and a downstream multichannel air conveyor enabling the downstream multichannel air conveyor to be moved vertically between upwardly inclined and downwardly inclined orientations relative to the upstream air conveyor. In particular, the present invention provides a multichannel pivoting connection between an upstream multichannel air conveyor and a downstream multichannel air conveyor. The connection mechanism that can be selectively controlled to simultaneously adjust the lateral width dimensions of the slots between opposed flanges of the connection to coincide with adjustments in the lateral width dimensions of the slots between the opposed flanges of the upstream and downstream multichannel air conveyors. The multichannel air conveyors of the type employed with the pivoting coupling apparatus of the invention convey streams of plastic bottles suspended by their neck rings in the slots and the lateral spacing between pairs of flanges that define the slots can be quickly changed over for conveying plastic bottles of different neck dimensions and different neck ring diameters.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Air conveyors are typically employed in the rapid transport of empty plastic bottles of the type having an annular rim or a neck ring at the top of the bottle neck. A typical air conveyor includes a pair of flanges that are spaced from each other defining an elongated slot between the flanges. A multichannel air conveyor includes a multiple of pairs of flanges that extend side-by-side, defining a multiple of conveying slots. For air conveyors of considerable longitudinal length, conveyor sections are connected end-to-end so that the pairs of flanges of one section are aligned with the pairs of flanges of other adjacent conveyor sections and the slots of the pairs of flanges, aligned end-to-end, define the conveyor path. The spacings between the flanges of the conveyor sections is sufficiently large to enable a portion of the bottle neck just below the neck ring to pass through the spacing with the bottle suspended from the top surfaces of the flanges by the neck ring engaging on the top surfaces. A series of air jets or orifices are positioned along the flanges above and/or below the flanges. A plenum of the air conveyor sections supplies a flow of air to the orifices. The orifices are oriented so that air ejected from the orifices will contact the plastic bottles pushing the bottles along the pathway defined by the elongated slots of the aligned pairs of conveyor flanges with the neck rings of the bottles sliding along the top surfaces of the pairs of flanges. An example of this type of conveyor is disclosed in the of Ouellette U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,588, issued May 13, 1997 and incorporated herein by reference. Multichannel air conveyors are basically the same as that disclosed in the patent, except that they include a multiple of pairs of flanges that extend side-by-side, defining a multiple of conveyor slots.
In some types of air conveyors the opposed flanges that define the slot of the conveyor path are mounted in laterally spaced side walls of the air conveyor that define a conveying channel between the side walls. Air ducts also pass through these pairs of side walls feeding the flow of air to the orifices that also emerge from these side walls. The side walls are provided with mutually opposed, longitudinally extending grooves. The pairs of flanges are mounted in these grooves. The grooves are designed to be sufficiently deep so that the flanges can be adjustably positioned in the grooves enabling the pair of opposed flanges to be moved laterally toward each other or laterally away from each other. This enables the lateral spacing between the pairs of flanges that defines the conveyor slot to be adjusted to accommodate different diameter neck rings of bottles to be conveyed through the conveyor, for example, an adjustment between the typical 28 mm thread diameter bottle neck and the 38 mm thread diameter bottle neck. The flanges are secured in the grooves in their relative adjusted positions by a series of set screws that are spacially arranged along the length of the conveyor channel side walls and are tightened down to secure the flanges in their adjusted positions in the opposed grooves of the side walls.
Although the ability to adjust the lateral spacing between the opposed flanges of an air conveyor is a very desirable feature in order to be able to use the same air conveyor in conveying plastic bottles of different neck diameters, the desirable flange lateral adjustment feature of this type of air conveyor has the disadvantage of the time required to adjust or change the lateral spacing between the flanges of each conveyor section. For each conveyor section the series of set screws along the lower sections of the conveyor channel side walls must first be loosened. Then, the opposed pairs of flanges are moved to their new adjusted positions and then each of the plurality of set screws in the opposed lower sections of the channel side walls along the longitudinal length of the conveyor section must be tightened down while the pair of opposed flanges are held in their new adjusted positions. This adjustment procedure is very time consuming for a single length of an air conveyor. The time involved in the adjustments can be multiplied several times for an air conveying system that is comprised of several sections of air conveyors. The time involved in adjusting the lateral spacing between opposed pairs of conveyor flanges is multiplied even further in the case of multichannel air conveyors.
The problem of down time in adjusting the lateral spacing between opposed pairs of flanges of air conveyors has been addressed and overcome by an apparatus that automatically and simultaneously changes over the lateral slot spacing between adjacent pairs of conveyor flanges between two previously determined and previously adjusted lateral slot spacings. The apparatus that performs this function is disclosed in the pending of Ouellette, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/228,831, incorporated herein by reference. However, the apparatus disclosed in the patent application is employed on horizontal lengths or sections of air conveyors. It is often necessary to join adjacent lengths of air conveyors by a pivoting connection, for example, a connection that would allow a downstream air conveyor section to pivot vertically relative to an upstream air conveyor section. Connecting adjacent lengths of air conveyors by a pivoting connection is made more complicated where the air conveyor sections have automatically adjustable flange spacings such as that disclosed in the above-referenced patent application. This is made even more complicated where the adjacent lengths of air conveyors are multichannel air conveyors that have automatically adjustable flange spacings. Such a pivoting connection would not only require that the downstream air conveyor section be capable of pivoting relative to the upstream air conveyor section, but it would also have to include opposed pairs of flanges that are laterally adjustable between two lateral spacings that would match the lateral adjustability of the opposed pairs of flanges of the upstream air conveyor and the downstream air conveyor section.